New York Police Officers Being Investigated

From the New York Post:

Up to 24 retired NYPD cops, some already getting tax-free disability pensions, are being investigated for allegedly feigning mental illness to add Social Security benefits to their juicy incomes -- even as they declared themselves sane enough to pack a pistol, The Post has learned. ...

The case began two years ago when Social Security investigators on an unrelated corruption case noticed that one lawyer represented an inordinate number of retired cops filing Social Security claims, a source said. ...

The retired cops appear to have used only a handful of lawyers to fill out the paperwork to support their bogus Social Security claims of mental illness -- and collect up to an additional $3,500 monthly on top of their disability pensions, the source said.

All of the cops also used the same group of shrinks, all of whom wrote prescriptions for medications. It was not clear whether the retired officers actually took the drugs. ...

The probe has already snared one former cop who was convicted on fraud-related charges, a source said. He was sentenced to prison, but details weren't immediately available.

Additional arrests are anticipated, although no breakdown was immediately available on the number of lawyers, psychiatrists or retired cops involved.

"I'd be very surprised if there are not further arrests," one insider said. ...

Lawyers allegedly involved in the fraud also face potential fee-gouging charges, a source said.

They're barred from charging more than $6,000 or 25 percent -- whichever is less -- of the monies awarded to a Social Security claimant, and those fees are supposed to be paid by the Social Security Administration, not the clients.

A source said one lawyer charged the retired NYPD cops far more than that to put them onto the government's gravy train -- a year's worth of SSA benefits, paid in cash.

I rarely read the New York Post. When I do, I am reminded of the words of the late Alabama governor, George Wallace, who said, "You gotta put the hay down where the goats can get to it."